Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 11:51 amPosts: 8123Location: United States of New England

So for the last two days something wonky has been going on with my left ear. Nothing specific happened, no defining moment where I went OUCH, and it doesn’t hurt but everything sounds muffled. i was not exposed to any SUPER LOUD noises or gunshots or bangs but i do listen to my music loud.

It’s kind of messing with my mind cause today it almost sounds like throbbing or something. it’s really hard to describe but it’s hard to hear out of my left ear and something’s not quite right. When people are talking loud near me it’s muffled but almost at the same time like vibrating in my ear and I just want to yell SHUT UP OR GO AWAY cause it’s messing with my head.Did I somehow blow out my eardrum and not realize it?

Im pregnant and reading through pregnancy books pregnancy messes with every damn system in your body and pretty much everything can be a symptom of pregnancy but I think ears and hearing is the one thing I didn’t read anything about.

It’s driving me nuts and it was hard to hear people with accents on the tv last night but im not sure what I do about it. I go to a dr and they say “you damaged your hearing too bad for you?”

I'd be surprised if your eardrum is kaput--you'd probably not be hearing at all, if that were the case. It is possible to have a bad enough ear infection that it feels like your eardrum is damaged (it's happened several times to me--nothing major, just hurt like hell).

But anyway: go to a doctor.

_________________"So often I wish Adam were a real boy." - interrobang?!"If he was you'd hear him farting at the back of your yoga class." - 8ball

I've had my ears get plugged up with earwax before-- it feels pretty much like you describe. Not painful, but deeply disconcerting, and since your ear is isolated from outside noise you get to listen to all the sound of your blood rushing through your veins and your breathing and muscles moving and your pulse and stuff, but only in one ear. Fun times.

So yeah, go to a doctor. They will probably pour some oil in that ear and then hose it out with warm water, which is pretty disconcerting too, but kind of nice. Make sure they check the other ear while you're in there, just in case.

If you're reading this and saying "There couldn't be that much wax in there-- I clean my ears with q-tips!" you may be shoving wax back up inside your head when you q-tip. There's a reason they all say "not for cleaning ears," and it's because they can often make it worse. (How do I know this, you ask? I do the same thing.)

It could also be something else stuck up in there, but unless you've had something else going on, I bet it's wax. Let us know!

Fun fact, I used to work as a medical office assistant and had to irrigate ears as part of my job. It is the most disgusting thing I've ever had to do (and that includes back when I regularly had to "de-bone" chickens).

But everyone felt fantastic afterward!

_________________"I'd rather have dried catshit! I'd rather have astroturf! I'd rather have an igloo!"~Isa

"But really, anyone willing to dangle their baby in front of a crocodile is A-OK in my book."~SSD

Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 11:51 amPosts: 8123Location: United States of New England

i just called the dr and the person i spoke to said it doesnt sound like an ear infection since i have no pain and no fever.she said the exact same thing about flushing about my ears and jamming ear wax into my head with q-tips.

That sort of happened to me and then I had a ton of earwax AND an ear infection and then the pain eventually got really bad when the first antibiotic I took didn't work and then my eardrum burst and then I took a lot of codeine and then I went through codeine withdrawal when the whole thing was over!

So yeah doctors are good.

_________________"No one with hair so soft and glossy could ever be bad at anything." - Tofulish

i just called the dr and the person i spoke to said it doesnt sound like an ear infection since i have no pain and no fever.she said the exact same thing about flushing about my ears and jamming ear wax into my head with q-tips.

i guess they are gonna call me back.

Cool.

If you're really lucky, they'll take a kind of little pokey wire loop and clear out the wax that accumulates around the edge of your eardrum, damping it and muting high frequencies. They did that last time I was in there, and suddenly everything sounded SO AMAZING.

But, yeah, having your ear irrigated is really nice and relaxing, although since you're basically having water squirted up inside your head it can be sort of disorienting. But I always feel really nice afterwards.

I've had my ear flushed out once, and it really felt amazing afterwards. Ah, I wish I could do it again. And also I had no idea earwax could have so many colors, mine was black and red and green! You have something to look forward too!

LisaPunk wrote:

also....so much for good hygiene? am i NOT supposed to clean my ears???

I feel like I want to have my ears irrigated even though I haven't had any problems. Sounds awesome.

Me too. I also wanna see it be done! There'd be something really satisfying about seeing chunks of wax come out.

_________________Did you notice the slight feeling of panic at the words "Chicken Basin Street"? Like someone was walking over your grave? Try not to remember. We must never remember. - mumblesIs this about devilberries and nazifruit again? - footface

Yeah, definitely sounds like a wax blockage. Happens to me all the time because I just can't resist sticking Q-tips in my ears! I have an over the counter ear cleaning kit from walgreens. Probably not as effective as when the doctor does it, but it works okay in a pinch.

solipsistnation wrote:

If you're really lucky, they'll take a kind of little pokey wire loop and clear out the wax that accumulates around the edge of your eardrum, damping it and muting high frequencies. They did that last time I was in there, and suddenly everything sounded SO AMAZING.

The pokey wire thing scares me! My mom had to take me along to her ear doctor's appt once when I was little. The doctor said she had a ton of ear wax and got the wire thing to clean it out. But he must have accidentally poked something, because suddenly blood was pouring out of my mother's ear and I was terrified. After that, my mom said flushing only, no wires!

I have eczema/psoriasis in my ears (I've gotten different suggestions about what it is from different doctors), which makes the skin in there flaky, and the wax and the flakes build up and cause exactly what you're describing. Add to this that it itches like a mofo and I do exactly what you're not supposed to and dig in there with Q-tips. (I've had numerous doctors chastise me about this, but sometimes the itch is maddening!) I've had to use the drops for a few days beforehand in order to loosen stuff up, but I've also had a doctor's assistant say you can use olive oil the same effect, so if it turns out you can't use the drops because of your pregnancy, that might be an option.

I will echo what everyone else is saying about ear irrigation being a surprisingly pleasant experience. And it's amazing how well you can hear afterwards!

_________________I ate the shiitake out of inappropriateness. - Hollie

I believe Debrox is more or less just hydrogen peroxide (or a thing that when added to water becomes hydrogen peroxide), and the little foamy bubbles are what breaks down the wax. I don't think that's going to cause problems during pregnancy unless, I suppose, you chugged a lot of it.

It dries up or evaporates out of your ear, and if you get the kits that come with little pressurized water bottles, you rinse it all out anyway.

Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 11:51 amPosts: 8123Location: United States of New England

Love Child wrote:

I've had my ear flushed out once, and it really felt amazing afterwards. Ah, I wish I could do it again. And also I had no idea earwax could have so many colors, mine was black and red and green! You have something to look forward too!

LisaPunk wrote:

also....so much for good hygiene? am i NOT supposed to clean my ears???

ew.

Water + ear = no good. Water makes the wax expand.

i guess the issue is q-tips though???? im not supposed to use q-tips??????

It might be a brain tumor! One of my friends started going deaf in her right ear. It turned out to be a non-cancerous brain tumor! She got it removed. I'm not sure it fixed her hearing. So don't rule out brain tumor!

Well, I wish I could have my ears irrigated, too. Can I assume that when a doc checks my ears with the otoscope and make no comment, everything is ok?

Anyway, one more thing that I'll bring up about stuffy ears and not hearing well is that your eustachian tube could be blocked. This is a tube that leads from your ears to your throat and causes you pain/trouble when you're in an airplane or diving. Sometimes for me it's really hard to get the tube unblocked to release pressure, either because of mucus or inflammation in the tube.

Sometimes I can clear things up by taking a decongestant, and also I think hard exercise that heats you up can help clear things out (one time it happened when I was doing yoga...wow, that was amazing!).